Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things

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Ella Fitzgerald was a 15-year-old street kid when she won a talent contest in 1934 at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Within months she was a star. Over the next six decades, her sublime voice would transform the tragedies of her own life and the troubles of her times into joy. JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS retraces this extraordinary journey.
Using never-before-seen images and unheard interviews, the film shows an Ella the world never knew: tough, thoughtful, funny; a dazzling musical innovator who defied horrifying racism; a committed civil rights activist; and an intensely private soul who sacrificed much of her personal life. At a time when she was the biggest singing star in the world, her pianist and friend Oscar Peterson said Ella was “the loneliest woman in the world”. But, as Jamie Cullum says, “Her music is one of the reasons it’s worth being on this planet.”